Jose's revving up the mind games before becoming Jaguar's global ambassador

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who claims ‘everything I say and do are mind games’, appears to have an ulterior motive for even the most innocuous of sound bites.

Mourinho, wanting a change from his ‘horses’ analogy about the Premier League title contenders, has switched to motoring horsepower, saying ‘Manchester City is a Jaguar, you cannot put an L-plate on a Jaguar’.

Yet the calculated Jaguar-driving Mourinho had not just plucked that car brand out of the air for his Match of the Day interview with Gary Lineker following Chelsea going top of the table after beating Newcastle.

VIDEO Scroll down to watch Mourninho: Pellegrini needs a calculator to work out spending

Mind games: Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho appears to have an ulterior motive during his press conferences

For Mourinho is set to become a well-paid global ambassador for Jaguar, with the official announcement coming on Thursday when he will be playing a central role in the glitzy launch of the Jaguar F Type Coupe luxury sports car in Canary Wharf.

A Jaguar spokeswoman said about Mourinho name-checking the car: ‘We were very happy about it, but it certainly wasn’t planned in advance.’

Sky Sports initially claimed the live broadcast of England national selector James Whitaker’s excruciating interview avoiding Kevin Pietersen questions from Headingley last week did not bring any complaints from the England Cricket Board, who insisted on a pre-recorded chat.

Now it has emerged that Sky have apologised for a ‘misunderstanding’ to the ECB, who were furious with their rights holders.

No complaints: England national selector James Whitaker (left) avoided Kevin Pietersen questions during a live Sky broadcast last week

Adam Gemili, promising British sprinter who finished fifth behind Usain Bolt in the 2013 World Championship 200 metres, doesn’t start his season until next weekend. But, admirably, Gemili (right) travelled to the British athletics indoors at Sheffield to do interviews for British Athletics YouTube coverage free of charge - only asking for hotel rooms for himself and his mother Sacha, who acts as his manager.

Michael Downey, new chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, looks like he is doing what he can to demonstrate that the extravagance of his predecessor Roger Draper, ludicrously paid a package of £640,000-a-year, will not be repeated on his watch. Downey, former boss of Tennis Canada, was offered a choice of flashy company cars but opted for a low profile Mini Cooper that Draper would never have been seen in..

Stan still a tweet fan

Almost the entire talkSport team has been honouring the Twitter ban imposed by station chief Scott Taunton in support of their stance that the social media should do more to eradicate the racist abuse aimed at lead football pundit Stan Collymore.

The only exception in continuing to tweet, however, has been Collymore himself.

A talkSport spokeswoman said: ‘Stan has been using his personal account while the Twitter ban is for all official talkSport accounts.’

Twitter fan: Stan Collymore continues to tweet while all other talkSport staff continue to honour the Twitter ban

Sky Sports are understood to have had to pay a whopping £20million a year - around double the current deal — to extend their USPGA golf rights until 2022 to see off the challenge of BT Sport.

Sky, having lost the Champions League to their arch rivals, are doing all they can to shore up summer sports - a time of year when BT’s live content looks thin in comparison.

It doesn’t say much for internet giant Google’s quality control that they only took down rogue secondary ticket operation All Sports & Leisure from No 1 sport in a ‘Ryder Cup 2014’ search after Sports Agenda exposed the pirate sale last week. Google initially ignored the court injunction won by Ryder Cup lawyers against the pop-up site selling tickets for the tournament.